Applications now open for Innovation Birmingham’s €400,000 Climate-KIC accelerator

Applications are now open for the €400,000 Climate-KIC accelerator, being delivered by Innovation Birmingham at their new landmark iCentrum building.

Launched this month, the Climate-KIC Low Carbon Accelerator is a two-stage programme which supports promising start-ups by providing the tools, opportunities and network to transform low carbon business plans into commercial successes. This European grant-funded programme also provides grants of up to €20,000, international publicity and 24/7 hot-desking space, situated on the mezzanine floor of iCentrum. The deadline for applications is 10th June 2016.

Katharine Fuller, Innovation Birmingham’s Senior Project Manager for EU Projects, said: “We are delighted that our partner, Innovation Birmingham, is hosting the Climate-KIC’s accelerator programme again this year. The alumni of our programme, here at Innovation Birmingham, have always gone on to achieve great success. With the bar already set high, I am very much looking forward to seeing the progress of this year’s participants.”

Climate KIC is an EIT funded project and the Low Carbon Accelerator is open to start-ups across the UK who are less than three years old and have a product, service or innovation that is climate change related.

Cliff Dennett, Head of Business Development at Innovation Birmingham, said: “We are thrilled to be delivering this year’s Climate-KIC Low Carbon Accelerator at iCentrum and to extend our current start-up programme support to more of the UK’s most promising entrepreneurs and innovators.

“The Climate-KIC Low Carbon Accelerator will perfectly complement our existing Entrepreneurs for the Future (e4f) and Serendip Smart City Incubator programmes and will enable us to firmly establish ourselves as the region’s leading location for digital brilliance.”

Innovation Birmingham’s Climate-KIC West Midlands Regional Innovation Centre is one of six across Europe that are working to develop the low carbon economy within their regions. The other Regional Innovation Centres are located in; Valencia (Spain); Emilia Romagna (Italy); Essen (Germany); Lower Silesia (Poland) and Central Hungary. The Centres are supported through the Climate Knowledge Innovation Community (KIC) project, which receives funding from the European Commission through the European Institute for Innovation and Technology.